Pay and Display
2011 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Oliver Beer
Pay and Display is a film of a performance, for which there was no audience, staged in the multistory Pershore Street car park in Birmingham, a brutalist building, arguably one of the most inhospitable environments for a musical performance. Dilapidated and empty, the ghostly presence of the car park comes to life. Beer composed the piece to resonate with this architecture, finding the frequencies that would bring the building to life, acting as a sound box and in effect another voice. Thus the inherent harmonies of the architecture are revealed. The building becomes almost a mythical figure constantly harrying the public working itself into a frenzy of demands for money. The quasi-religious nature of the music suggests the primacy of mammon in our society, climaxing on the word Sunday, which is the day of worship in the Christian week. The text of the piece is based on the signs that are scattered insistently around the car park: ‘Have you paid and displayed except on Sunday’. There is thus a consonance between the vocal score, written in six parts, and the environment. His choice of building was in line with the project as a whole, which seeks to animate spaces that are generally forgotten, hidden or unremarked but which play an essential social role. The film is played on two large-scale screens with high quality sound, creating an intense immersive experience. The work of Oliver Beer explores the resonances in buildings and objects, exploiting the occurrence of natural frequencies that turn buildings and objects not only into amplifiers but musical instruments. Having studied musical composition at the Guildhall School of Music, he then trained as a fine artist at Ruskin School of Art. The artist combines expert musical knowledge with fine art practice to create performances, objects and films. Most recently, his piece for four voices was performed at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in London. Four singers, each in a different corner of the room, sang a score he composed specifically for the room, having established on what notes the room would resonate. In Beer’s practice, the room becomes a massive sound box, a wind instrument that is an extension of the singers’ own wind instrument, and the voice that resonates in the mind. The building, in effect, sings back to the singers. While there something quite Orphic about this process, the resonance equally has a strong relationship to the Platonic belief in the harmonics of the universe. The resonance project pitches sublime sound with the most banal, or democratic of architecture. Car parks, sewers, concert halls, corridors, vestibules and staircases have been the venues for his work, all of which is site specific.
The work of Oliver Beer explores the resonances in buildings and objects, exploiting the occurrence of natural frequencies that turn buildings and objects not only into amplifiers but musical instruments. Having studied musical composition at the Guildhall School of Music, he then trained as a fine artist at Ruskin School of Art. The artist combines expert musical knowledge with fine art practice to create performances, objects and films. Most recently, his piece for four voices was performed at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in London. Four singers, each in a different corner of the room, sang a score he composed specifically for the room, having established on what notes the room would resonate. In Beer’s practice, the room becomes a massive sound box, a wind instrument that is an extension of the singers’ own wind instrument, and the voice that resonates in the mind. The building, in effect, sings back to the singers. While there something quite Orphic about this process, the resonance equally has a strong relationship to the Platonic belief in the harmonics of the universe. The resonance project pitches sublime sound with the most banal, or democratic of architecture. Car parks, sewers, concert halls, corridors, vestibules and staircases have been the venues for his work, all of which is site specific .
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis
2022Five Hundred Twenty-Four, a single-channel video installation by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, features singers from over twenty Cleveland-area choirs counting numbers in an iterative process: one person sings “one”, then two people sing “two”, and so forth, to 524...
© » ART & OBJECT
Valuable Paintings Found in Unusual Places | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Exhibitions review The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ This curatorial triumph highlights the measured artificiality of the German Romantic artist who made work that still mesmerises J...
© » IGNANT
In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology - IGNANT Name Jakub Kubica Images Clemens Poloczek Words Marie-Louise Schmidlin With a portfolio that spans minimalist furniture, functional design objects, and futuristic artworks, the practice of Jakub Kubica meets at the intersection of various disciplines...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles February 15, 2020 by Kathy Rowland In a first for Malaysian art history, a Collectors’ Petition signed by 55 private art collectors have warned Balai Seni Visual Negara that they will no longer be lending works from their collection to Balai in future unless Balai reinstates pieces removed from Ahmad Fuad Osman’s exhibition immediately ...
© » KADIST
Chemi Rosado-Seijo
2016Map of the Universe from El Cerro continues Chemi Rosado-Seijo’s long-term engagement with the community of El Cerro , a rural, working-class community living in the mountains of Naranjito, Puerto Rico...
© » APERTURE
Gregory Halpern
The photographer speaks with his brother, the journalist Jake Halpern, about growing up in a city of surreal sights and memorable characters....
© » KADIST
Michael Rakowitz
2017The Ballad of Special Ops Cody by Michael Rakowitz is a serio-comic stop motion animated film in which an everyday African-American G...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
‘Tattoos are not a crime’ – how Iranian tattoo artists are leaving an indelible mark on a society that is slowly coming to accept body ink | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more An Iranian man shows his tattoos in Iran’s capital, Tehran...
© » KADIST
Charwei Tsai
2008Charwai Tsai’s photograph documents her Hermit Crab Project installation upon the construction site of gallery Sora in Tokyo...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Podcast 65: M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival (Part 1) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo: Crispian Chan September 12, 2019 Duration: 20 min Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss works they saw at the recent M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, specifically at the platforms DiverCity, Off Stage and M1 Open Stage...
© » SLASH PARIS
Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Abigail Lane — Doing Time Exposition Installations Abigail Lane, Black bird, Doing Time Abigail Lane Doing Time Encore 27 jours : 13 janvier → 9 mars 2024 La série exposée dans la project room chez Semiose, Doing Time, consiste en des broderies d’oiseaux insérées dans des boîtes fermées par des barreaux...